Saw this over on Blasko’s blog:
The challenge for independent artists, label managers, artist managers and anyone working with artists in online marketing is deciding where to apportion effort.
Am I doing enough online? Should I tweet? Should I blog on MySpace? Do I need my own website or is a MySpace enough? Do I need a Facebook page?
For digital music and music marketing in general to move forward, I think it’s important that some basic standards are established around an artist’s online presence. If these standards are established, music marketers can spend more time innovating and less time worrying about whether the Bebo page has enough of a photo gallery.
If we agree on a minimum standard then we can define what is exceptional and extraneous.
Native has developed an online artist report card to help structure decision-making and reduce the grey area around representing music online.It moves from the basic to the advanced and is intended for all levels of artists.
A threshold: This is the minimum requirement to pass. You need to answer ‘yes’ to questions 1-5.
1 – Is your music available for sale on iTunes?
2 – Do you have your own MySpace, with autoplay turned off, featuring your best songs?
3 – Have you embedded an iTunes buy link into your MySpace page? (You can generate iTunes links to your album here.)
4 – Do you have a document listing the email addresses of your fanbase?
5 – Do you have an application to sign up subscribers embedded in your MySpace page?
For a C, answer ‘yes’ to questions 1-10.
6 – Do you regularly (8-10 times a year as a minimum) deliver value to your fans via email? Delivering value means sending them mp3s, video content, letters from the band. Tour dates, calls to action to ‘buy my album’ and press releases do not constitute value…..
For the rest of it, visit Blasko’s blog here!
